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THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY 
KATHARINE PYLE 


Tales of Two Bunnies 
Lazy Matilda 

Careless Jane and Other Tales 
Fairy Tales from Many Lands 
Where the Wind Blows 
The Counterpane Fairy 
Mother’s Nursery Tales 


E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 





































































I hardly knew what to do, I was so glad 












THE 

BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY 

KATHARINE PYLE 

• I 

AUTHOR OF “TALES OF TWO BUNNIES,” “LAZY MATILDA,” ETC. 



NEW YORK 

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 

681 FIFTH AVENUE 





Copyright, 1923 

BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
All Rights Reserved 




Printed in the United States of America 



C1A76082Q 



'Xo f 



ILLUSTRATIONS 


I hardly knew what to do, I was so glad Frontispiece 

PACING PAGE 

I howled and howled. 8 

The boy brought me some breakfast .... 14 

I wished I could go too.20 

I sat up and waved my paws.26 

I pretended I wasn’t there.34 

I felt too sad and lonely to care anything about 

playing.44 

I grinned at him.. . 48 

Mr. Bonelli had a lot of dogs beside me . . 50 

Graceful would jump right over me ... 60 

We would get on top of the barrels and roll them 
along with our feet.64 

Tommy used to make me go through my tricks . 88 
















THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


i 

1 AM a little white, rough-haired dog, with a 
black spot around one eye, and black ears 
and tail. 

I am about the size of a terrier or a spaniel, but 
I’m not really either. At one time I thought I 
might be a poodle, but then it turned out I wasn’t. 
I’m just not any special kind of dog. My mother 
wasn’t any special kind either. She was a smooth¬ 
haired white dog. Fan was the only one of us 
puppies that looked like mother. 

There were five of us. There were Rover and 
Fanny, and Jack and Snip, and then me. My 
name was Smarty, but it isn’t now. 


2 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


yje belonged to a man named O’Grady. It 
was he who gave us our names, and he named me 
Smarty because I was so smart. He said I was 
the smartest puppy he had ever seen. I heard him 
telling someone that. He said, “Why, that pup 
can almost talk; I believe he understands every 
word I say.” Of course I didn’t, but that’s what 
he said. I did understand a good deal, though. 

I was the only one of the puppies that he kept. 
He gave the others away to different people. He 
kept only mother and me. Mother was getting 
sort of old and cross. She used to growl when 
I tried to play with her. 

Mr. O’Grady used to play with me in the even¬ 
ings while he smoked his pipe. He called it play¬ 
ing, but it was rough sort of play. Sometimes he 
made me yelp. And he used to blow tobacco 
smoke in my face. I hated that. It made me feel 
sick. 

He spent part of the time teaching me tricks. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


3 


He taught me to sit up and beg, and to roll over 
and keep quiet when he said “dead dog,” and to 
hold something on my nose until he gave the word, 
and then to throw it up in the air and catch it. 

He liked to make me show off before people 
when they came in in the evenings. They seemed 
to think I was very smart. I wonder what they 
would have thought later on when I belonged to 
Mr. Bonelli and was really a trick dog and acted 
on a stage, with crowds of people there to look on! 

There was one trick I had that nobody taught 
me. It just came to me naturally. I had a way 
of lifting my lips when I was pleased and drawing 
them back so that I showed all my teeth. Mr. 
O’Grady called it grinning. Everybody seemed 
to think that the funniest trick of any that I did. 

As it turned out later, that was the best trick of 
all. Things would have been very different with 
me if I hadn’t had that trick of grinning. 

.When I was big enough Mr. O’Grady began to 


4 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


take me to the factory with him. The factory was 
the place where he went to work. 

He would tie me in the factory yard and leave 
me there until the noon hour when he and the other 
men stopped working to eat their dinners. Then 
he would come for me and take me in where they 
were. The men used to throw me scraps from 
their dinner pails. I liked that, but after they had 
finished eating they would begin to tease me. 
They thought it was funny, but I used to get so 
mad at them I felt like tearing them to pieces; but 
I was only a puppy and couldn’t really hurt them, 
so they thought that was funny too. 

One day—it was a cold day in winter—it seemed 
to me they teased me worse than ever before. I 
just yelped at them, I got so mad. 

When the whistles blew for the men to go back 
to work Mr. O’Grady took me out in the yard 
again and tied me to the post. “There! You stay 
there and cool off your temper,” he said. Then 
he went back into the factory again. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


5 

But I wasn’t going to stay there. I made up 
my mind to run away and go to live with someone 
else, where I wouldn’t be teased. 

I took the piece of twine he had tied me with 
between my teeth and gnawed and gnawed, and 
presently, in a very little while, I gnawed it in two. 

I ran over to the fence and squeezed through 
a hole, and then I was out in the open street. 

I ran on gaily down the street, sometimes on 
three legs and sometimes on four. I didn’t know 
exactly where I was going, but it was fun to run 
along all by myself, and not have to follow at the 
heels of anyone. 

Presently I came to an open alley gate. I went 
inside and found a garbage can that smelled of 
things to eat. I pawed it over and had a fine time 
hunting among the scraps, but presently a woman 
came to the door and shouted at me to get out. 
She had a broom in her hand, and she seemed cross 
so I ran out into the street again in a hurry. I 
didn’t even stop to take a bone with me. 


6 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

A little farther down the street I met another 
puppy. He was just about my size and we made 
friends and had a fine play together, but someone 
opened a door near-by and called to him to come 
home, and he ran away and left me. 

It was growing late now, and getting colder too. 
The wind was so sharp it made me shiver. It had 
begun to snow, and it kept snowing harder and 
harder, and the wind blew the snow in my eyes till 
I could hardly see where I was going. 

I thought I’d better find some place where I 
could creep in and keep warm until morning, and 
then maybe I would go home again. I knew Mr. 
O’Grady would be sorry because I had run away. 
But then he oughtn’t to have let the men tease me 
the way they did. And he had laughed when they 
did it, as though he thought it funny, instead of 
telling them to stop. 

I had come now to a street where all the houses 
were big and had big windows with lights shining 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


7 


out of them. They all had brown stone steps go¬ 
ing up to their front doors. Down under these 
steps were other doors. These other doors were 
lower than the street, and had steps going down to 
them. I found afterwards they were called base¬ 
ment doors, but I didn’t know it then. I thought I 
would get down in one of these basements and 
wait there till it stopped snowing. Anyway, I 
would be out of the wind. 

I ran down the first steps I came to and crouched 
against the door. It wasn’t very warm there, but 
anyway it was better than being up in the street. 

It kept on getting colder and colder, and I felt 
so lonesome that presently I began to whine. 

I’d only been whining a little while when I heard 
something inside the door snuffing at the crack, and 
then a low growl. 

I put my nose down to the crack and I sniffed, 
too, and then I could tell by the smell that there 
was a dog on the other side of the door. I whined 


8 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


again, and then I heard two dogs snuffing at the 
crack. They both growled in an angry way, and 
first one and then the other began barking. They 
barked louder and louder. 

Someone inside opened the door right quick be¬ 
fore I expected it, and both the dogs came rushing 
out at me, barking fiercely. 

They were only little dogs, but they made such 
a noise they scared me. I yelped and ran up the 
steps to the street as fast as I could, with them 
after me. 

I thought they would certainly bite me, but some¬ 
one called to them and they ran on down the steps 
again, looking back to bark at me once or twice. 

After they had gone in the house again I didn’t 
know what to do. I was afraid to go down in any 
of the other basements for fear some other dogs 
might get after me. 

I stood there shivering for a while, and then I 
went up the brown stone steps and got in a corner 
of the doorway there. The wind was so cold and 



I howled and howled 











THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


9 


I was so lonesome and miserable that I began to 
howl. I howled and howled, and the snow blew 
against me, and all up and down the street there 
didn’t seem to be anything alive but me. 

Then suddenly the door I was leaning against 
opened. It opened so quickly that I almost fell 
over backward. 

In the doorway stood a man, looking down at 
me. A boy was peeping around the door. 

“There he is, father, down in the corner,” cried 
the boy. 

The man stooped and picked me up by the scruff 
of the neck, and lifted me into the hall and shut 
the door. “The poor miserable little beast,” he 
said. I was so cold I could hardly stand. 

The boy knelt down beside me and patted me. 
“He’s almost frozen,” he said. 

“He would have been frozen by morning. Take 
him down and put him in the laundry, and to¬ 
morrow we’ll see what we can do with him.” 

“I wish I could keep him,” said the boy. 


10 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


He got up and coaxed me along the hall, and I 
followed him as best I could, but I was so stiff I 
could hardly move. 

He took me down some steps and into a big 
room that had hardly anything in it, but it was 
warm and comfortable. 

“Now, you stay here,” said the boy, “and I’ll 
get you something to eat.” 

He ran away, shutting the door after him, but 
presently he came back again with a plate of food 
and set it down before me. 

I was so hungry I ate and ate. “Why, you poor 
little fellow,” he cried, “you’re almost starved.” 
And then he said, “I believe I’ll call you Raga¬ 
muffin, and Rags for short. Or no; I’ll call you 
Muffins. That’s a good name. Poor little Muf¬ 
fins! Good Muffins!” 

I wanted to tell him my name was Smarty, but 
I was busy eating, and then he wouldn’t have 
understood me anyway. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


11 


All the while I was eating I kept wagging my 
tail to show him how pleased I was, and when I 
finished the last scrap I looked up in his face 
and licked my lips and grinned. 

“Why, you cute little fellow!” he cried. 
“You’re grinning!” He seemed to think it was 
just as cute as everybody else did. 

He patted me and praised me, and then he 
went away and got a piece of carpet and folded 
it up and put it in a corner of the room for a bed 
for me to sleep on. 

I was so full and comfortable that I went right 
over and curled up on it, and then I looked up at 
him and wagged my tail and grinned again. 

“Oh, I do hope I can keep you, Muffins,” he 
said; “you’re so cunning.” And he patted me 
again and then he went away and left me, and I 
was so sleepy I just sighed and shut my eyes and 
went to sleep, and never knew anything more until 
it was morning again. 


II 

W HEN I first opened my eyes I hardly 

knew where I was. Then I remem¬ 
bered. I was in the laundry, and I 
hadn’t had any breakfast yet. It was lonesome 
there, all by myself. I began to whine and yelp. 
I yelped louder and louder. Presently I heard 
somebody coming. I cocked my head on one side 
and listened, and then I began to wag my tail for 
I felt sure it was the boy. And it was. 

He opened the door and came in, and patted me 
and made a fuss over me. “Poor Muffins,” he said. 
“Poor boy! Poor little fellow! I know you were 
lonesome. Come on, boy! Come on!” 

He led the way out and up the stairs, and I 
followed close at his heels. 


12 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


13 


We went along a hall and into a big bright room 
that smelled of food. Some people were sitting 
at the table eating—two of them. There was the 
man I had seen the night before and a lady. The 
boy called her mother. 

'Took, mother!” he said. "Isn’t he a cunning 
little fellow*? Mayn’t I keep him*? Please say 

may. 

"Oh, Tommy!” said the lady. And then I 
didn’t hear her say anything else, because two little 
dogs rushed out from under the table and began 
barking at me. They were the very same dogs 
that had chased me out of the basement the night 
before. There was another little dog, and she 
barked, too, but she stayed under the table. 

The dogs came at me and I thought they were 
going to jump on me, so I barked and showed my 
teeth, but Tommy drove them away, and the lady 
called to them and hit at them with a white cloth 
she had in her lap. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


14 

The gentleman said, “Take him away, Tommy. 
Shut him up somewhere until after breakfast.” 

So I was taken downstairs again and shut up in 
the same room where I had been before, but the 
boy brought me some breakfast,—all I could 
eat, so I didn’t mind. 

I did hope I was going to stay and not be sent 
away, and that I could be Tommy’s dog and not 
have to go back to the O’Gradys’. I loved that 
boy and he loved me, and I wanted to be his dog. 

And so I was. Somehow I had been afraid the 
lady would send me away, but she didn’t; not just 
then, anyway. I stayed and stayed, for days and 
days and days and days. 

The lady didn’t like me much, and the dogs 
didn’t like me at all. 

The names of the three dogs were Prince Coco 
and Bijou and Fifine. Prince Coco was rather old 
and fat. Fifine was a snappish little dog. I 
liked Bijou best, but they were all very proud 
and haughty with me. They were the kind of 



The hoy brought me some breakfast 












THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


15 


dogs that are called Pekinese. They said that was 
the finest kind of dog that any dog could be, and 
Prince Coco told me he and the others were very 
handsome and worth a great deal of money. 
(Money is what you give to people when you want 
to get something from them.) 

He asked me what kind of a dog I was, and I 
had to tell him I didn’t know, I guessed I wasn’t 
any particular kind of a dog; and after that they 
were prouder with me than ever. Fifine said she 
thought it was very hard that they should have to 
associate with such a common little dog as I was. 

She said it was something she had never expected 
to do. 

Prince Coco never was friendly with me, but 
Bijou was sometimes, if the other dogs weren’t 
there; but as soon as they came in he treated me in 
just the same sort of proud way the others did. It 
didn’t make me very happy, but I didn’t mind 
much. 

One day Fifine was talking again about my be- 

■ 

< . * 

i. ' 


16 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

ing there. She was talking to Prince Coco, and 
I was under the sofa pretending to be asleep, but 
she knew I heard her. “I don’t see why our mis¬ 
tress allows him to stay,” she said. “He’s not at 
all like any dogs I ever associated with before. 
He’s just like those common little dogs we see 
running about the street when we go out riding 
in the automobile.” 

Prince Coco yawned and stretched and rolled 
over on his side. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about 
that,” he said. “He won’t be here much longer 
now.” 

I pricked up my ears when I heard that. 

“Why not?” asked Fifine. 

“I heard the mistress talking this morning when 
Mary was brushing my hair. She said Tommy 
seemed so fond of ‘the little stray’ (as she called 
him) that she hadn’t had the heart to send him 
away just yet; but soon Tommy would be having 
a holiday and then they were all going off for a 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 17 

visit, and William was to give Muffins to a friend 
of his.” 

(William was the man who made the automo¬ 
bile go, and Mary waited on the mistress.) 

When Prince Coco said that I jumped up. 

“Tommy won’t let them send me away,” I 
barked. 

“Oh! so you weren’t asleep after all,” said 
Prince Coco in his lazy voice; and Fifine snarled, 
“Just pretending!” 

“Yes, I was pretending,” said I, “and I heard 
all you said, and if you think Tommy’s going to let 
them send me away you’re mistaken, so you needn’t 
be counting on that!” 

And then I marched out of the room and didn’t 
stop to hear anything else they might say. But for 
all that I spoke up that way, so bravely, I was 
worried, and I went upstairs and crawled in under 
Tommy’s bed and lay there till he came home; and 
then when I heard him I ran down to meet him, 


18 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

and we had such a fine play that I forgot all about 
what Prince Coco had been saying. As long as 
Tommy loved me and kept me with him, I didn’t 
care what any one else said. 


Ill 


T OMMY had to go to school every day, 
and while he was away I either stayed 
in the house or played in the backyard. 
I had some bones out there and an old rubber ball 
someone had thrown over the fence, and I played 
with them. Now and then a cat scrambled up on 
the fence and walked along it, and I barked at 
the cat. 

Once one fell off in our yard and I almost caught 
it, but it put up its back and spit at me, so I thought 
I'd better not, and it ran up the fence again and 
jumped over into the next yard. 

The other dogs never would play with me. I 
think maybe Bijou would have liked to but he 
was ashamed. The other dogs seemed to think it 
was common to play. 


19 


20 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY, 


Mary used to take them out for a walk in the 
street every day, with a leather strap fastened to 
each of their collars so they wouldn’t run away or 
get lost. I wished I could go too; but she never 
took me. It must have been fun out in the street, 
but I wouldn’t have wanted to be held by a strap. 

Tommy had given me a very pretty collar. It 
was red and had a bright buckle. The other dogs 
were disgusted because I had one. They said only 
fine dogs such as they were ought to have collars, 
and that it was absurd for me to have one too. But 
I didn’t care. I felt very proud that Tommy had 
given it to me. It made me seem more his dog 
than ever. 

I tried to make friends with Tommy’s mother, 
but she didn’t seem to want to be friends with me. 
His father used to speak to me sometimes, and 
once or twice he patted me. He said I was a funny 
little dog. 

There was a big room they called the drawing- 



I wished I could go too 













« 










































."V 

























THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


21 


room. It had soft rugs and big soft chairs and 
sofas, and there was almost always a fire in the fire¬ 
place. The other dogs often went in there and 
slept in front of the fire or on the furniture. I 
tried to do it once or twice too, but always someone 
came and drove me out just as I got settled, and 
James was so cross about it that I stopped going in 
there after a while. James was the man who 
worked about and did things with the food. They 
called him a butler. 

Sometimes, in the afternoons, ladies and gentle¬ 
men came to the house to visit Tommy’s mother. 
They went in the drawing-room and laughed and 
talked, and Mary or James would carry in a tray 
with plates of cakes, and cups, and saucers and 
things. Fifine said it was afternoon tea, but I 
smelled cake, too. 

Sometimes Mary came and called the other dogs 
and took them in there, but she never called me. 
Once I tried to go along, but she drove me back, 


22 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


and Prince Coco snarled at me. Often, when Mary 
took them in, I would hear the ladies cry, “What 
perfect little ducks of dogs!” Or, “What loves of 
little doggies!” 

When the dogs came back again they were al¬ 
ways prouder then ever. They would tell me 
how the different ladies had petted them and 
praised them, and had given them bits of cake,— 
only little bits, because the mistress said too much 
cake wasn’t good for little doggies. They would 
lick their lips and tell me how delicious the cake 
was, until it made my mouth water to hear about 
it. 

Often after they had gone I would lie there and 
think, “If I could only get in there once, without 
Mary seeing me, I would soon show the people 
what a clever little dog I am. I would grin, and 
beg, and play dead dog. How surprised and 
pleased they would all be! And the mistress,— 
she would be pleased, too, and when she saw how 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


23 

smart everybody thought I was she’d be glad to 
have me there. If only someone would think of 
putting a piece of cake on my nose, then I could 
show them that trick, too—the trick where I throw 
the cake up in the air and catch it again—only of 
course nobody knew about that, so they wouldn’t 
think of trying it.” 

I used to lie there in the nursery and dream 
about it while the other little dogs were downstairs 
having a good time. 

One day all four of us dogs were up in Tommy’s 
sitting-room (Mary and the mistress called it the 
nursery, but Tommy called it the sitting-room), 
and two or three times we heard the front door 
open and shut and visitors talking. 

“I wonder if they’ll send for us?” said Fifine 
lazily. “I just feel like a bit of cake this after¬ 
noon.” 

She was lying stretched out in Tommy’s chair. 
I hated to see her there. That was my place. 


24 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


“I don’t know,” said Bijou. “But if they do , I 
hope Mary will brush my hair first. It looks rather 
rough today, and it’s always so glossy when it’s 
brushed.” 

Just then Mary came to the door. “Come, 
Prince,” she said. “Come, Bijou and Fifine. The 
mistress wants you.” 

The three little dogs jumped up and ran toward 
her, and I did, too. I thought maybe this time 
she would let me come along, but she just said, 
“Go back, Muffins! You can’t come. You’re not 
wanted”; and Prince Coco looked back and 
snarled, “I should think you would have 
learned by this time that you’re not a company 
dog.” 

I didn’t say anything—just lay down again, but 
I thought, “I’ll show you in a little while whether 
I’m a company dog or not.” I’d made up my mind 
that I’d get into the drawing-room this time in 
spite of Mary. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


25 


Tommy was away that afternoon. Sometimes 
he didn’t come home till dinner time. I think he 

r 

went to visit other little boys. 

I waited until Mary had had plenty of time to 
take the others to the drawing-room and leave 
them there, and then I got up and stole out into 
the entry and down the stairs. There was no one 
in the hall below, but I could hear the visitors 
talking and laughing beyond the curtains of the 
drawing-room door. I slipped between the cur¬ 
tain and the side of the doorway, and then I was 
in the room. 

It was full of people talking and laughing, and 
at first no one noticed me. The mistress was sit¬ 
ting at a table pouring something into a cup. One 
lady was sitting near her with Fifine in her lap, 
and Prince Coco and Bijou were waiting in front 
of the table for cake. A gentleman was standing 
near the table with a cup in his hand. He was the 
first one to notice me. 


26 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


“There’s another little dog,” he said. “Is this 
your dog, too, Mrs. Stanford?” 

Then the mistress saw me. She gave a cry. 
“Oh, it’s that miserable little stray,” she said. “He 
came here at the time of the blizzard, and howled 
at the door. Tommy found him and brought him 
in, and begged to keep him for awhile. I don’t 
know how the dog managed to steal in here. Ring 
the bell, please, for James to take him away.” 

When she said that I knew I’d have to hurry if 
I wanted the people to see my tricks, so first I 
rolled over and played “dead dog,” and then I sat 
up and grinned and waved my paws, and then I 
barked. 

“My word! He’s a clever little chap,” said the 
gentleman, and he tossed me a bit of cake. 

It fell on the floor beside me, and quick as a flash 
Bijou jumped to get it. But I was quicker than 
he was. I growled and shoved him aside and 
grabbed it up and swallowed it. 



I sat up and waved my paws 


■ 















THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 27 

I guess Bijou was disappointed and so he felt 
like fighting me. Maybe he was jealous, too, be¬ 
cause the gentleman noticed me. At any rate be¬ 
fore I knew what he was going to do he jumped on 
me with a snarl and bit me. 

I was so surprised I tumbled over against the 
gentleman, and he said, “My word!” and his tea¬ 
cup upset and the hot tea came down on me. 

The mistress cried out, “Oh, that miserable dog! 
Oh, Pm so sorry!” And then James came in, and 
the mistress said, “James, take that dog out and 
shut him up somewhere.” 

James picked me up and carried me out, and he 
held me so tight I yelped. Out in the hall he 
dropped me and pushed me with his foot. “Go on 
upstairs!” he said in a low, fierce voice. “Go on!” 
And I ran up, and hid under the sofa in the nurs¬ 
ery. I was so miserable I didn’t know what to do. 
I did hope the other dogs wouldn’t come up there. 
I was ashamed to see them. But it hadn’t been my 


28 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

fault; it was Bijou’s. Only nobody seemed to 
think of that. If Tommy had been there he would 
have known. I was his dog, and he loved me and 
thought I was cute, even if nobody else did like me 
or want to have me around. 



IV 

1 DIDN’T see the other dogs until the next 
day. They came up in the nursery only now 
and then,—mostly when there wasn’t any fire 
in the drawing-room or when the mistress was out. 

I think she must have been out the next after¬ 
noon, and the fire, too, because they came trotting 
upstairs soon after lunch and came in where I was. 
I had jumped up in Tommy’s chair and was lying 
there. I liked to lie in his chair, and someone had 
laid a cushion on it that morning, so it was soft 
and warm. 

Fifine came over toward the chair and looked at 
me in a snarly way, and I knew she wanted me to 
get out of it and let her have it, but I wouldn’t. 

Prince Coco sat down close against the radiator. 
He always chose the hottest place. He yawned, 

29 


30 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


and then he looked over at me in sort of a proud, 
lazy way. 

“Well, I hope you enjoyed yourself with the vis¬ 
itors yesterday,” he said. “Fighting before them 
all, and upsetting the tea and everything!” 

The way he said it made me so mad I couldn’t 
help growling. 

“Perfectly disgraceful,” snarled Fifine. “I 
never was so ashamed in my life. I’m glad the 
mistress told them you were Tommy’s dog, and 
didn’t belong with us.” 

I didn’t answer,-—just kept up a low growling. 

Bijou didn’t say anything. I think he was 
afraid. I kept watching him, and if he had said 
anything I was going to jump on him and show 
him which was the better dog. I was still mad at 
him for biting me the day before. I think he knew 
this, for he went over and lay down under the sofa, 
and then presently he got up again and went out. 

Prince Coco kept on mumbling, and I didn’t 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


3 1 

know whether he was talking to himself or me. 
“Oh, well! What’s the difference 6 ? They’re going 
away this week, and then it’s good-bye Muffins. 
You won’t be here long after they go.” 

I did wish he would stop talking that way. 

A door banged downstairs, and I heard Tommy 
whistle for me. At once I forgot Prince Coco and 
all he had been saying. I bounded out of my chair 
and tore downstairs. There was Tommy waiting 
for me below. He threw his school-books over on 
a chair, and then we had a fine romp. We had the 
rugs all tangled up together and the chairs crooked 
before we were through. 

It was several days before I thought any more 
of what Prince Coco had said. 

Then one morning I heard a bumping sound out 
in the hall, and I ran out to see what was going on. 
James was bringing a big leather box down the 
stairs from the third story. Bijou was out there 
watching him. 


32 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

“What’s he bringing that box down for?” I 
asked. 

Bijou and I were friendly again now. He was 
often friendly with me when the other dogs were 
not there, and I liked him better than the others, 
even if he had bitten me that time. 

“It isn’t a box, it’s a trunk,” said he. “Every 
time the family is going away James brings the 
trunks down and Mary put the clothes in them, 
and then she shuts the trunks and men come and 
take them away.” 

“So bringing down the trunks means people are 
going away?” 

“Yes,” said Bijou. 

“The Mistress and the Master, and Tommy, 
too?” 

“Yes.” 

That worried me. 

James took that trunk into the mistress’s room, 
and he went up and brought down another and put 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 33 

it in the master’s room, and then he brought still 
another and put it in Tommy’s room. 

He lifted the top of the one in Tommy’s room, 
and took part of the trunk out and set it on the 
floor. 

I had followed him into Tommy’s room, and 
after he went away I jumped in the trunk and 
sniffed about, but I couldn’t tell much about it 
except that it smelled of Tommy’s clothes. 

After a while Mary came into the room. When 
she saw me she said, “Get out of that, Muffins. 
You’re too curious.” 

I jumped out of the trunk and sat down by it 
and watched her. She went over and opened 
Tommy’s closet and his bureau drawers, and began 
taking out his clothes and putting them in the 
trunk. After a while she had it almost full. I sat 
and watched her. Then she went out of the room 
for something. 

As soon as she had gone I got up and looked into 


34 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


the trunk again. All those clothes of Tommy’s 
were going, and if I were in the trunk I would 
go, too. 

Right away I knew what to do. I jumped into 
the trunk and scratched up some of the clothes and 
got down in a corner and put my head down under¬ 
neath them, and then I lay there and kept perfectly 
still. 

Soon Mary came back into the room. She moved 
about and shut a bureau drawer, and then she came 
over to the trunk. I could hear her. 

“Tsch!” she said. “Whoever has been at this 
trunk!” Then she lifted something off my head. 
“Well I never!” she cried. 

I didn’t move, except that I couldn’t help shak¬ 
ing. I just lay still and pretended I wasn’t there. 

Tommy must have come home, for I heard his 
whistle, but I only snuggled down still further in 
the trunk, and hoped Mary would go away and 
forget about me. 



I pretended 1 wasn't there 

















THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


35 

Presently he came upstairs, and I heard him 
asking, ‘ 'Where is Muffins ?” 

u He’s in here, Master Tommy!” called Mary. 

He came in the room. I could tell by the sound, 
though I didn’t lift my head or stir. 

“Look in here,” said Mary. 

Tommy came over to the trunk and looked into 
it. 

“The little beggar!” he cried. “How did he get 
in there?” 

“He must have jumped in while I was out of the 
room,” said Mary. 

“Did you ever know such a dog!” cried 
T ommy. 

A moment after he took hold of me. “Come out 
of there, you little beggar,” he said. 

I tried to get further down under the clothes, 
but Tommy lifted me out. He was laughing in 
a funny way, and he put his face against me. 

“If you’re not the limit!” he said. “I believe 


36 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

he knows I’m going away, Mary, and he wants to 
go with me.” 

Of course that was what I wanted. I wouldn’t 
have hidden in the trunk if I hadn’t hoped to go 
along. 

“I don’t see why I can’t take him,” said Tommy. 
‘Tm going to ask mother whether I can’t.” 

a You can ask her, but you know she won’t let 
you,” said Mary. 

I suppose she wouldn’t let him, for I know I 
didn’t go. 

The next day the automobile came to the door 
early and the trunks were carried out, and then 
Tommy and his father and mother came down¬ 
stairs with their hats on, and when I jumped up 
on Tommy he said, “I’m sorry, but you can’t go, 
old fellow.” 

James caught me by the collar and pulled me 
back. I almost snapped him, he bothered me so. 
I did snarl and try to wriggle away from him, but 
I couldn’t. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


37 

Then Mary opened the outside door and Tommy 
and his father and mother went down the steps, 
and when they were part way down Tommy looked 
back and called, “Good-bye, Muffins! Pll be back 
soon. Take good care of him while Pm away, 
James. Good-bye!” 

And then Mary shut the door, and they were 
gone. 

Prince Coco yawned and stretched himself. 
“Well, now we ? ll have some peace and quiet, with 
Tommy out of the house!” he said. 

That made me so mad I growled and flew at 
him, but James turned back and said, “Here! 
Here! None of that! What’s the matter with 
you, Muffins, anyway*?” 

Coco didn’t say anything more about Tommy 
after that. He was afraid to. 

He may have liked having the house so quiet, 
but I didn’t. I was so lonesome without Tommy 
that I hardly knew what to do with myself. But 
then he had said he would be back soon. And he 


38 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

had told James to take good care of me, so it was 
all nonsense about their sending me away and 
my not being there when Tommy came home 
again. 


1 WAS up in Tommy’s room lying under the 
bed with one of his shoes in my mouth. It 
was one of his school shoes. I had dragged 
it out of the closet one day when Mary left the 
door open. I didn’t feel so lonesome when I had 
it in my mouth. He had been gone for several 
days now. 

Well, I was lying there, and sometimes I chewed 
the top of the shoe and sometimes I just held it, 
and then I heard James whistling and calling me. 

I wondered what he wanted, so I left the shoe 
under the bed where it was safe and ran down 
to see. 

He was standing in the front hall, and Bijou 
and Fifine were there, too. “Come along, Muffins,” 
said James, and as soon as I came near enough 

39 



40 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


for him to reach me he picked me up. He held 
me under his arm and went over to the front door 
and opened it. 

The automobile was standing out in front of 
the house, and Bijou and Fifine thought we were 
going for a ride and they wanted to go too, but 
James pushed them back with his foot and told 
them to stay at home. He shut the door behind us 
and went over to the automobile and got up in 
front beside William. He put me down on his 
knees but still he held me, and then we started 
off. 

I was very much excited. I had never been in 
an automobile before. All the other dogs had. 
I had often watched from the window and seen 
them starting out with the mistress, but she never 
took me. 

We rolled along down the street, with William 
holding the wheel, and there were other automo¬ 
biles and crowds of people, and I saw some other 
dogs, too. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


4i 

The wind blew, and I was so excited I barked 
and barked until James told me to be quiet, and 
even then I didn’t stop till he held my mouth shut 
with his hand. 

After a while we turned into a narrower street 
and stopped in front of a queer-looking shop. It 
had a big window with a sort of cage in it with an 
upstairs and a downstairs, and puppies and some 
long-haired cats in it. 

v William stopped the automobile in front of the 
shop. “This is the place,” he said. 

Then he got down and took me from James and 
carried me into the shop. I never heard such a 
noise as there was in there. It had cages all along 
one side with dogs and cats in them, and some other 
animals that I didn’t know, and the dogs were 
barking and yelping, and big green birds were 
shrieking, and there were chickens making a noise, 
too. 

A man came forward from the back of the shop, 
and William said, “This is the dog.” 


42 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

The man took me and looked at me. I didn’t 
like him. He scared me and I growled at him, but 
he didn’t pay any attention. “All right!” he said, 
and then he opened the door of one of the cages 
and put me in with a lot of other puppies. 

He shut the door of the cage and fastened it, 
and then he gave William some money. William 
took it and put it in his pocket, but he kept looking 
at me in a sorry sort of way, and he came up close 
to the cage and put his fingers through, and said, 
“Well—good-bye, Muffins, old chap.” Then he 
turned away. 

All of a sudden I knew he meant to leave me 
there, and I lifted my nose and howled, and yelped 
and howled again. 

William looked back at me, and then he turned 
to the man and asked him something. 

“Oh, he’ll be all right in a little while,” said 
the man. 

William looked at me once more in the same 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


43 

sort of sorry way, and then he went out and the 
door closed behind him. 

He had gone and left me. But if only I could 
get out of the cage I might still run after him. 
I cried and whined and tore at the door with my 
claws, but I couldn’t get it open. 

Suddenly I felt a cold nose against mine and 
a little tongue licked my cheek. One of the other 
puppies in the cage was trying to make friends 
with me. 

I stopped tearing at the door and sniffed at 
him, and I liked his smell. He smelled friendly. 

After we had smelled each other he gave a 
sudden little frisk and tried to get me to play, 
but I sat down and didn’t pay any more attention 
to him. I felt too sad and lonely to care anything 
about playing. 

“I guess you don’t like it here, do you?” said 
the little dog. 

“No, I don’t, and I want to go home.” 


44 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

“I’ve been here a long time; oh, a long, long 
time,” said the puppy, “It’s not so bad.” 

“Did you have a home 1 ?” I asked. 

“Yes, but I don’t often think about it. I guess 
maybe some time someone will take me away and 
I may have another home.” 

“But I don’t want to stay here a long time,” I 
said. It made me whine to think of it. 

“Well, maybe you won’t. Some of the dogs 
only stay here a little while. They just come here 
and then they go away again.” 

“Where do they go 4 ?” 

“People come and get them. I guess they go 
to different places.” 

I looked around the cage and saw there were 
a great many puppies. None of them were alike. 
Some were bigger than others, but none of them 
were very big. They were almost all asleep, 
some lying on top of others, but presently one of 
them woke and yawned and got up. He didn’t 






















THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


45 

pay any attention to me, but went over and took 
a drink of water and licked at a plate that looked 
as if food had been in it. Then he went back and 
lay down again. 

The friendly puppy and I talked together a 
a long time. He told me his name was Fido. I 
told him my name was Muffins. 

He said the shop was a place where people 
came when they wanted an animal. Some of 
the dogs there were very fine dogs. I told him 
about Fifine and Bijou and Prince Coco, and he 
said some of the dogs in the cages around us were 
just as fine as they were, if not finer. We weren’t, 
though. None of the dogs in our cage were worth 
much. He said there was a sign on the front of 
our cage. He had heard people read it and he 
knew what it said. It said: 

“Just plain dogs! Two dollars and a half 
apiece.” 


46 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

I asked him if people seemed to like plain dogs, 
and he said no; they seemed to like the other dogs 
better. 

Well, it got on toward supper time and I grew 
hungry. Every now and then I whined and yelped. 
Then the man came along and put some food in 
our cage, and the other dogs woke up and we all 
ate from the plate together. One dog kept growl¬ 
ing all the while he ate, but nobody paid any 
attention to him. 

It grew dark in the shop and the man went away, 
and all the animals were still. 

Then came the morning and the noise began 
again, and the man opened the shop and fed us. 
People came and went. Sometimes they took a 
dog or a cat or a bird away with them, but no one 
took a puppy from our cage. They just looked 
at us and read the sign and went on. 

After a while we were turned out in a dark, 
narrow yard to run about for a while, and then 
we were put back in our cage. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 47 

Every day it was just the same thing. After 
awhile I began to sleep most of the time the way 
the others did. They were stupid dogs, all but 
Fido. He and I used to play together sometimes, 
and I liked him. I liked him better than any dog 
I had ever known. 

After I had been there a while—not so very 
long though—a queer-looking man and woman 
came to the shop. The woman had a bright hat, 
and the man had black hair, and eyes that made me 
feel queer when he looked at me. 

He didn’t look at me at first, though. He looked 
at the finer dogs that were in open cages down 
below us. They were chained there, and there 
were no tops or fronts to the cages but just backs 
and sides to keep the dogs from getting at each 
other. 

The man and woman stopped in front of 
my cage, and the woman said, “How about a 
poodle?” 

They were looking at the dog just below us. 


48 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

“No, no! Ab-so-lutely no,” said the man. “We 
already have two. That is enough.” 

Then he raised his eyes and looked straight at 
me. I was sitting at the front of the cage, and 
when he looked at me I stood up and wagged my 
tail and then I grinned. 

“See! See!” cried the man, and he caught the 
woman by the arm. “It is he! The one we want. 
His eyes, so full of intelligence! And that smile, 
for it is a smile. There is our clown dog. Just the 
one we want!” 

He turned and snapped his fingers, and called 
to the shopman in a quick, sharp voice. 

The man came hurrying toward him. 

“This one,” said the stranger. “The little dog 
with the black around his eye. Take him out that 
I may see him!” 

The shopman took me out and gave me to the 
man, and the man held me up close to his face and 
looked into my eyes and smiled at me, and I 



/ grinned at him . 











THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


49 

grinned at him. I liked him, though he had a 
queer look. 

"‘Yes, he is the one,” said the stranger. cc We 
will take him. Have you a basket in which to 
carry him?” 

The shopman had. It was a queer basket. I 
had never seen one like it before. It was just big 
enough to hold me, and it had a cover, and a 
window at one end so I could look out. 

The stranger put me in it and fastened the lid. 

He let the basket stand on the floor while he 
paid the shopman, and then he picked it up and 
started off. I should have liked to say good-bye 
to Fido, but I had no chance. I looked out of 
the window and I could see him up in the cage 
looking after me, but he couldn’t see me very well. 

It was a long time before we ever saw each other 
again, and when we did it was in the queerest way. 
But that comes later in my story. 


VI 

S O now I belonged to Mr. Bonelli, and had 

still another name given me. I was now 

called Master Grineo. It seemed funny 

to have belonged to so many people, and to have 

had so many names. Every time there was a new 

master there was a new name. 

First I had belonged to Mr. O’Grady and then 

I had been called Smarty. Next I had belonged to 

Tommy and then I was called Muffins. And now 

it was Mr. Bonelli and I was Master Grineo. 

The first thing my new master taught me was 

to answer to that name, and to pay attention the 

moment he said “Master Grineo” 

Mr. Bonelli had a lot of dogs beside me. Some 

of them were big, and some were little. I was 

afraid of them at first, there were so many of them, 

50 



Mr. Bonelli had a lot of dogs beside me 












THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 51 

but they were very friendly dogs,—not proud and 
snarly like Prince Coco and Fifine. 

They were all trained dogs, and could do a great 
many wonderful tricks. Mr. Bonelli had trained 
them. After they were trained he took them to 
a big place called a theatre, and crowds and 
crowds of people came to see them do their tricks. 
Showing off his dogs was Mr. Bonelli’s business, 
just as going to the factory was Mr. O’Grady’s 
business. 

Soon after I came to live with Mr. Bonelli he 
began to teach me tricks. He began with easy 
tricks, almost as easy as the ones Mr. O’Grady 
had taught me, but he went on to harder and 
harder ones. Some of them were very hard indeed, 
and some were funny. I never knew there were 
so many tricks a dog could learn. And the other 
dogs knew just as many as I did. At least some 
of them didn’t know as many, but some of them 
knew more. I had thought I was smart when I 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


52 

learned those three little tricks Mr. O’Grady had 
taught me, but I knew better now. I heard Mr. 
Bonelli say he had never had a dog that learned 
as quickly as I did. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bonelli lived in a big house, but 
they didn’t live in all of it. They lived down¬ 
stairs and some other people lived upstairs. There 
was a man upstairs who played a horn. When he 
played it I felt so sad it made me howl, but Mr. 
Bonelli always spoke sharply to me when I did 
that, so after a while I learned I mustn’t. 

Back of the house was a yard, and every day 
we dogs were turned out there to run about awhile 
and get the fresh air. Trained dogs act just like 
any other dogs. They sniff about and play to¬ 
gether, only never fight. Mr. Bonelli wouldn’t 
allow any fighting. 

The dog I liked best was a little black dog 
named Sambo. He was just about my size, and we 
played together a great deal. We were great friends. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


53 

Besides Sambo there was a poodle named Punch, 
and a terrier named Frisco; then there were Ruby 
—he was a setter—and Snaps, and Diamond, and 
Sancho and Frolic. I don’t know what kinds of 
dogs they were. There was a long-legged grey¬ 
hound, too, who could jump further than any dog 
I ever saw. His name was Graceful. 

There had been another dog, but he had died, 
and that is the reason Mr. Bonelli had come to the 
shop and had bought me. 

When Mr. Bonelli first began to teach me my 
tricks he took me off in a quiet room by myself; 
but when I had once learned them, I had to do 
them before all the other dogs with Mrs. Bonelli 
making loud music on a piano. 

At first it was harder to do it there before the 
others, and I made mistakes; but I soon became 
used to it, and then it wasn’t any harder to pay at¬ 
tention with all the others there than when I was 
in a room alone with Mr. Bonelli. 


VII 


E VERY day Mr. Bonelli took all of us 
down into a big cellar under the house. 
There was a raised part at one end that 
he called a stage, and we had to get up on the stage 
and go through our tricks every day. If any dog 
made a mistake he had to go through his tricks all 
over again. 

We all had sort of fancy things to wear when we 
were on the stage. 

The other dogs wore cloth collars that came 
down over their breasts and a kind of saddle 
strapped around them. The collars and saddles 
were red, and had trimming around the edges. 

I was dressed differently, because I was the 
clown dog. I wore a red cap that was cut so that 
it came round and fastened under my chin, and 

54 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 55 

a big white thing round my neck that they called 
a ruff. I wore a little coat with my front legs put 
through the sleeves of it, and little striped trousers 
with my tail coming through at the back. 

At first, when they dressed me that way, I felt 
so foolish I wanted to get down under a chair or 
sofa and hide, but afterwards I became used to it, 
and then I felt quite proud, and liked to be dressed 
in them. 

Mr. Bonelli made me the clown dog because 
I could grin. The first thing he taught me was to 
grin whenever he made a certain sign with a little 
whip he always carried. 

When he was teaching me he used to give me a 
bit of cake or sugar every time I grinned, so I was 
always glad when he made the sign for me to do it. 
But afterwards he stopped giving me the cake and 
sugar, but I had to grin just the same. 

As soon as we were on the stage we had to run 
over to a row of chairs and jump up on them. 


56 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

There was a chair for each dog, and each dog had 
his own particular chair. We were never allowed 
to sit on any but our own chairs. 

All the dogs except me sat with their backs 
against the backs of the chairs and their tails hang¬ 
ing down, but when I got up in my chair I turned 
with my head to the back of it and my tail toward 
the front. That was what I had been taught to do. 

Mr. Bonelli would call to me and tell me to turn 
around, but I wouldn’t stir. He would call to me 
louder and louder, as if he was getting angry, but I 
wouldn’t pay any attention. At last he would 
come over and lift me up and set me down the right 
way, but as soon as he went away I would turn 
around again. We would do this several times, 
and at last he would say, “All right, Master 
Grineo, suit yourself then,” and would walk away 
and leave me. 

Then I would turn round and sit the right way 
and grin at him, and he would seem very much 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 57 

surprised when he looked round and saw me sitting 
that way. 

Later, when we acted in a theatre with people 
looking on, I found this trick always made the 
people laugh. 

(Mr. Bonelli didn’t call it a trick, though; he 
called it an 'act.”) 

Another "act” we did was the Jumping Act. 

A long board would be put on the stage with 
one end resting on something high so that it stuck 
up in the air. A mattress was always laid on the 
stage down below the high end. The dogs would 
run up the board and jump off on the mattress. 
The mattress was put there so they wouldn’t hurt 
their legs when they came down. 

All the dogs would jump except me, but I would 
just sit and look on. 

Then the mattress would be moved further off, 
and a chair would be put between it and the board. 
The dogs would run up the board and jump off the 


58 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

„ end and out over the chair and light on the mattress 
as before. Then the mattress would be moved 
further and two chairs put there. The little dogs 
would stop jumping then. But most of the larger 
dogs kept on. 

Then two chairs and a table would be put there 
for them to jump over, and then two chairs and 
two tables, and so on. After a while the jumps 
would be so long that only Graceful and Punch 
could do them. They were both fine jumpers, but 
Graceful was the best. 

Now I would get down from my chair and trot 
over to Mr. Bonelli and stand up on my hind legs 
in front of him and bark: “Bow-wow-wow-wow!” 

“What, Grineo! 55 he would say. “You want to 
try it, too? 5 

“Bow-wow! 55 

“But that 5 s too long a jump for you.” 

“Bow-wow-wow ! 55 


“ L You think you can do it? 5 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


59 


“Bow-wow/’ 

“Very well! Then go ahead, but Pm afraid you 
can’t do it, and you may hurt yourself, too.” 

Then I would go back to the furthest edge of 
the stage, and run as hard as I could across the 
stage and up the board, and just as I got to the 
edge I would stop short and stand there with all 
my feet together and not jump at all. Then I 
would look round at Mr. Bonelli and grin. 

“There!” he would say. “I knew you couldn’t 
do it. Come down now and let Graceful jump.” 
But I wouldn’t come down. 

“Come, come!” he would cry impatiently. 
“You’re keeping everybody waiting. Come down, 
say. 

Still I wouldn’t move, and then Graceful would 
run up the board and jump right over me and far 
out over the chairs and tables, and land on the 
mattress so lightly you scarcely knew when he 
touched it. Even Punch was not able to make 


6o 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


that last long jump, only Graceful. After that 
last jump I would come down from the board and 
go back to my chair again. 

Then we would play ball. Mr. Bonelli would 
toss a big bright ball to one after another of the 
dogs, and each dog would jump up in the air and 
catch it and bring it back to him. 

After they had played for a while I would jump 
down from my chair and run over in front of 
him, and stand up on my hind legs and wave 
my paws. 

“So!” he would cry. “You want to play, too, 
do you?” 

“Bow-wow-wow!” I would bark. 

“Very well,” he would say; “then catch.” 

He would throw the ball to me, and I would 
catch it as the others had done, but instead of bring¬ 
ing it back to him I would run away with it, and 
he would chase me all around the stage and pre¬ 
tend to get very angry. 

At last he would cry, “Police! Police!” 



Graceful would jump right over me 



















THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


61 


Then Frolic, who had jumped down from his 
chair and had run out a little while before, would 
come in walking on his hind legs and dressed like 
a policeman. A black stick was strapped to his 
paw, and he would come hopping over toward me 
and wave the stick as if he meant to hit me, and I 
would pretend to be frightened and would drop 
the ball and run and hide under a chair. 

Frolic would go out again, and after he had gone 
I would come out from under the chair and sit 
down in front of Mr. Bonelli, and beg again and 
wave my paws up and down. 

Mr. Bonelli would say, “So you want to play 
again. Sure you won’t run away with the ball 
this time?” 

I would wave my paws harder. 

“Very well, we’ll try once more, but remember! 
If you play any more of your tricks I’ll call the 
policeman again, and then he’ll take you away and 
shut you in the lock-up.” 

And now would come the most difficult trick I 


62 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

ever had to learn. It was one that none of the other 
dogs could do. I don’t know whether any other 
dog ever did it or not. When Mr. Bonelli threw 
the ball to me this time, I would catch it and throw 
it back to him. This I would do by jerking my 
head forward and letting go of the ball at the same 
time. We would throw it backward and forward 
three or four times, and then we would stop, for 
it was hard for me to do this, and after doing it 
three or four times I was tired. 

After that I would rest awhile, and some of the 
other dogs would do their tricks. A long red carpet 
would be unrolled across the stage, and Frisco, and 
Snaps, and Diamond and Sancho would turn 
somersaults across it from one side of the stage to 
the other. 

After they had done this for a while they would 
stop and go back to their chairs, and three little 
round barrels painted with stripes of red, white 
and blue would be brought in. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 63 

This was an act for Sambo and Frolic and me. 
We would get on top of the barrels and roll them 
along with our feet from one end of the carpet to 
the other, always keeping on top of them and never 
falling off. That was a hard thing to do. 

Then Graceful and Ruby would come in dressed 
like people. Graceful was the lady, with a skirt, 
and a hat with a feather in it, and Ruby was the 
gentleman, in a coat and trousers. Graceful’s dress 
was so long at the back that it trailed on the floor. 
The music played and they stood up on their hind 
legs and danced together, and after I had watched 
them for a while I would jump down and hop after 
them on my hind legs, and every now and then 
I would hop on Graceful’s train so he couldn’t 
dance and at last he would have to stop and run 
off the stage on all fours. 

These are some of the acts we did, but there were 
a great many more of them. 

The last of all was the “Fire Act.” A little 


64 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

house would be brought on the stage, and Mr. 
Bonelli would pretend to set fire to it. It was 
fixed so it wouldn’t really burn, but the fire was 
inside and came out of the windows, so it looked 
as though it were burning. 

Then Graceful and Ruby would come galloping 
in harnessed to a little fire engine, with Sancho 
sitting up in front with the reins in his paws. 
Diamond stood on the back of the fire engine and 
kept pushing a gong with his paw so it went “Jang! 
jang! jang! jang! jang!” 

There was a hose on the engine, and Judy had 
to catch it in her teeth and hold it so that when 
the water was turned on it would squirt on the 
house and seem to put the fire out. 

I was the little dog that ran about barking when 
the house was burning, and then pushed the other 
little dog off the engine and rang the bell myself. 
We none of us liked this act because of the fire. 
We were afraid of the fire. Still we had to do as 



We would get on top of the barrels and roll them along with 

our feet. 








THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 65 

we were told, and we had to practise this act over 
and over and over again because it was a hard one. 

There were a great many other tricks besides 
these, as I said, but these are enough to show you 
the sort of things we did. 

Every day we practised these things over and 
over until every one of us knew exactly what he 
was to do and when he was to do it. 

Then one morning we didn’t practise. We 
played out in the yard and around the house, and 
we didn’t have any lessons. 

In the afternoon two men came to the house, 
and Mr. Bonelli called to us and whistled us into 
the room where he and the men were. 

“Come, my children!” said he. (He often called 
us his children.) “This afternoon we go to the 
theatre to practise, and we will see whether you 
can be as perfect there as here. Then tonight we 
will act in the show, and everybody will look and 
laugh and wonder at you.” 


66 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

I didn’t know what he meant, but he looked so 
kind and smiling I thought he must mean play. I 
guess the other dogs did, too, because we all began 
to bark and jump about him. 

I did like Mr. Bonelli, but I didn’t love him the 
way I loved Tommy. I never could love anyone 
else the way I had loved Tommy. 

Mrs. Bonelli came up from downstairs carrying 
in her arms the things we wore, and she and Mr. 
Bonelli dressed us. After that Mr. Bonelli put 
collars on our necks and fastened straps to them, 
and he and the men took hold of the straps and 
led us out of the house and into the wide, sunny 
street. How big and bright it seemed! I hadn’t 
been in the street for a long time. 

We trotted along, the men leading some of us 
and Mr. Bonelli leading some, and everybody 
turned to stare at us and smiled, and a crowd of 
children followed after us, talking and calling. 
Some of them wanted to pat us, but Mr. Bonelli 
wouldn’t let them. 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 67 

After a while we came to the theatre. I had 
never been in a theatre before, and I didn’t know 
what the name meant at first, but I learned after¬ 
ward. It is a great big place where crowds of 
people come to see dogs act. There is always a 
stage in a theatre, and bright lights. There are 
queer places back of the stage, and men hurry about 
and drag things round. 

I was scared when I first saw it all and I stayed 
close to Mr. Bonelli’s legs and kept looking up at 
him, but the other dogs were used to it, they had 
been there before so many times. They sniffed 
about, and some of the men stopped and patted 
them. 

Mr. Bonelli led us out on the stage, and then 
some men came with our chairs and set them in 
a row. 

“Now, my children!” said Mr. Bonelli. 

He pointed to the chairs and flicked his little 
whip, and we ran and got up in our places, only 
I forgot and sat down with my head turned toward 


68 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

him and my tail toward the back of the chair just 
the way the other dogs were sitting. 

Mr. Bonelli wasn’t pleased with that. He spoke 
to me quite sharply, and then I remembered and 
turned round the other way,—the way he had 
taught me to sit. 

The lights shone out along the edge of the stage 
and there was music somewhere in front of us, but 
Mr. Bonelli spoke to us just the way he always did. 
He came and turned me round in my chair, and 
when I turned back again he said, “All right, 
Master Grineo; suit yourself!” just as he did when 
we were at home, and so presently I didn’t feel 
strange any more. 

We went through all our tricks as we did at 
home, and when we came to the end Mr. Bonelli 
went about among us, patting us and praising us. 
“Good! Good dogs! Well done!” he said. 

We all felt so pleased we wagged our tails, and 
some of us jumped about and barked. Then we 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 69 

went home and had our suppers and lay down and 
rested for a while. 

But that wasn’t all. Almost always when we 
had gone through our tricks once we had finished 
for the day; but that evening the men came to 
the house again, and Mr. Bonelli put collars and 
straps on us,—but he didn’t dress us in our fancy 
things this time. Mrs. Bonelli put the things in a 
big case and fastened it, and then we all set out, 
Mrs. Bonelli too. 

We went the same way we had gone in the morn¬ 
ing, and after we came to the theatre Mrs. Bonelli 
took us to a room downstairs, dressed us, and then 
upstairs again where the stage was. 

We didn’t go on the stage right away, though. 
A man and woman were out on it. They were 
walking up and down and singing and talking. 
After a while they came off and went on again and 
came off, and then a big curtain came down in 
front so the stage was shut in like a room. 


7 o THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

“Now,” said Mr. Bonelli, “get those chairs on.” 

Some men ran about and carried our chairs out 
on the stage. One of them almost fell over me. 

Then the big curtain that had come down in 
front of the stage went up again, and Mr. Bonelli 
led us out on the stage. 

He motioned to us to get up in our chairs and 
we did, and then I heard him speaking and a big 
noise as though a lot of people were clapping their 
hands. It made me feel so queer inside I wanted 
to turn round and bark and bark. 

Then we began acting just as we did at home, 
and every now and then there would be the same 
sound of clapping hands. There were crowds and 
crowds of people out in front of the stage. Some¬ 
times when I did my tricks they laughed and 
clapped, and then I wagged my tail and grinned. 
I wanted to do them over again but Mr. Bonelli 
wouldn’t let me. 

Sometimes there was music. It was bigger than 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


7i 


when Mrs. Bonelli played the piano. When we 
rolled the barrels and when we turned somersaults 
there was music. And when the dogs jumped off 
the board the big drum went “Bumb!” And there 
was music when Graceful and Ruby danced. 

After a while it was all over, and we had to go 
off the stage. I didn’t want to go off one bit, but 
we had to. When the music began again I barked 
and ran out on the stage again, but a man ran after 
me and caught hold of me and pulled me back, 
and everybody laughed. 

Then the collars were fastened around our necks, 
and the men came and took hold of the straps and 
we went home again. 

That was our first night of acting. But there 
were many more after that. We acted for a long 
time at that same theatre. Night after night we 
acted there, and sometimes in the afternoons, too. 
I got so used to it that I didn’t think any more 
about it. 


VIII 


O NE day Mr. Bonelli and Mrs. Bonelli 
took us out along the street to a house 
where we had never been before. We 
went upstairs to a big light room with a window at 
the top, and there was a man there with a big box 
that stood up high on legs. 

Mr. Bonelli got up on a little stage and called 
us dogs up, and made us sit down around him. 

The man stood in front of us and pulled a cloth 
over the box and over his head. He looked so 
strange that I began to bark,—not a big bark, but 
a growling bark with my mouth shut; but Mr. 
Bonelli told me to keep still. 

Something in the box went “click, 5 ’ and the man 
took his head out from under the cloth and said, 
“All right; I’ll take another in a minute. 55 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


73 

Mr. Bonelli wouldn’t let us get down from the 
stage, and presently the man did the same thing 
all over again. 

Then Mr. Bonelli dressed us in our acting 
things, and we had to get up on the stage and do 
different tricks. I had to stand up on a high stool 
and grin, and I had to stand on my hind legs and 
grin. 

The man put his head under the cloth again, 
and the box went “click.” He did this over and 
over. Then at last he said, “There! That’s all. 
We ought to get some very good photographs out 
of those.” I don’t know what he meant. 

After that Mrs. Bonelli took off our clothes and 
we all went home again. 

We had been going to the theatre every day for 
a long time now, and I thought we would always 
keep on going just the same way, and then one 
time Mr. and Mrs. Bonelli got out their trunks 
and packed them. I wondered whether they were 


74 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

' going away to leave us the way Tommy and his 
father and mother had. 

They did go away; it seems that’s what trunks 
mean; but they took us with them. We went down 
to a big place called a station where there were 
engines that puffed and blew. A big train came 
in and there was a great noise, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Bonelli led us up some steps and into a sort of 
long room they called a car. Presently it began 
to shake and jolt, and everything outside began 
sliding past the windows. It was very curious. 

When we got out—that was after a long, long 
time—we were in a strange place where I never 
had been before. There were streets and houses, 
but they were all strange, and they smelled strange. 

We went to a big house Mr. Bonelli called a 
hotel, and the trunks came after we did, and every¬ 
thing was taken out of them again. 

We stayed there at that hotel for a long time, 
and almost right away we began going to a theatre 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 75 

to act. It wasn’t the same theatre as the one where 
we had been before, but it was like it and people 
came to watch us just as they had at the 
first theatre. 

After that we often rode on the cars. We went 
to a great many different places, and always there 
was a theatre, and always we went through just 
the same tricks in just the same way, and there were 
lights and music, and the people clapped their 
hands and laughed. 

All the while I remembered Tommy, but I didn’t 
remember him as often as I used to. I was too 
busy, and then I was tired all the time, too. 


IX 


FTER a while we came back home again. 



We didn’t begin acting right away, 
though. We practised one or two new 


tricks. I learned to turn somersaults and to 
balance a ball on my nose. 

Then one night we went to the theatre again. 
We went quite early that night, and we went by a 
different way from the way we had gone before. 
I don’t know why that was. We used to go through 
a narrow dark street with ash barrels standing in 
it, and in through the back door of the theatre; 
but this time we went along a broad bright street 
where there were crowds of people, and Mr. 
Bonelli led us in the big front way. 

There were big boards standing in the hall of 


76 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


77 

the theatre, with pictures on them,—and one was a 
picture of me! Me, in my clown clothes up on a 
high stool and grinning. The other dogs were 
sniffing about and didn’t see it, and I wouldn’t 
have seen it only Mr. Bonelli stooped and picked 
me up in his arms. “Now look! Look at your¬ 
self, my little clown dog,” said he. “Is it not a 
good likeness?” And he took hold of my head 
and turned it toward the picture. 

I knew it was me because of the clown clothes, 
and the spots of black. 

I began to bark, and Mr. Bonelli turned to one 
of the men and said, “He knows it,—he knows it, 
my little Master Grineo. Never before was such 
a dog as he,” and then he dropped me gently and 
we went on into the theatre. 


X 


HAD learned more about theatres now than 
I had known at first, and I had learned the 
names of a great many things about it. 

The bright lights in front of the stage were 

called footlights. Then at each side of the stage 

were places called “boxes,” and they had chairs in 

them where people could sit, if they wanted to be 

very near the stage. When they sat in the boxes 

they were so near it was almost as though they 

were on the stage with us. Often there were a lot 

of children there, and I liked that because they 

laughed so loud and clapped their hands so hard 

when we did our tricks. But I didn’t pay so very 

much attention to anyone but Mr. Bonelli when I 

was on the stage. None of us did. We had to 

78 



THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


79 

watch him and his little whip all the time if we 
were to do the right things. 

This evening we had come with just our collars 
on, and we ran downstairs to the room where Mrs. 
Bonelli was and she dressed us, and we stayed 
down there with her until it was time for our act. 
Then Mr. Bonelli called us. We all ran upstairs 
together and out on the stage, wagging our tails. 
It was all just the way it had always been before, 
but somehow I felt different, and all excited. I 
kept sniffing and sniffing, and I felt as if Tommy 
was somewhere near. 

We jumped up on our chairs, and Mr. Bonelli 
spoke to the people and they clapped, and then he 
came over and turned me round, and I kept turn¬ 
ing back just the way I always did, until he said, 
“All right, Master Grineo, suit yourself then!” 

At that I turned and faced the people, just as 
I always did, and grinned, and right then I heard 
Tommy’s voice. He was there in the box beside 


8 o THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


the stage, and he called out, and his voice was 
shrill,—“It is! It is, mamma! It’s Muffins!” 

When I heard that I forgot everything. I 
jumped down and ran over to the box where 
Tommy was sitting, and jumped up against the 
side of it and barked and whined and tried to get 
to him; and he leaned down over the side of the 
box to get at me and reached down his hand to pat 
me, and I caught his hand in my mouth, I was so 
glad to see him. 

Then the next thing Mr. Bonelli called to me 
sharp and quick, and came over toward me and 
made his whip whistle through the air. 

I was scared and ran back with my tail between 
my legs and jumped up on the chair again. 

The people in front began to talk and then the 
music struck up, and Mr. Bonelli went over and 
talked to Tommy. I didn’t hear what he said, but 
presently he turned to the people and held up his 
hand for the music to stop, and said, “My little 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 81 

clown dog found an old friend he had not seen 
for a long time. He forgot himself, but now he 
prays for you to forgive him, and he is ready to act 
again,” and all the people clapped. 

So we went on. Graceful jumped, and we 
played ball and turned somersaults, and we rolled 
the barrels and did all the rest of the things, but 
I didn’t do very well, and once I fell off the barrel, 
and once I missed the ball. Mr. Bonelli kept 
smiling, but he came close to me and spoke to me 
in a low voice, but very sharp, and touched me 
with his whip, and then I did better. 

At last it was all over. Mr. Bonelli bowed and 
the people clapped, and he bowed and bowed, and 
then we ran off the stage, and there, waiting for 
us, were Tommy and his father. 

The father talked to Mr. Bonelli, and Tommy 
was down beside me patting me, and he kept say¬ 
ing, “Can t I have him back, father? Can’t I?” 
until his father told him to be quiet. 


82 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

l He talked to Mr. Bonelli for a long time, 
Tommy’s father did; then he called Tommy to 
come, and I heard him say to Mr. Bonelli, “Then 
I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

Tommy didn’t want to go, but he had to. He 
kept looking back at me, and when I saw he was 
going I wanted to follow him, but Mr. Bonelli 
wouldn’t let me. He put on my collar and strap, 
and I had to go home with him and Mrs. Bonelli 
and the other dogs. 

But that wasn’t the end of it. The next day 
Tommy and his father came to Mr. Bonelli’s house. 
I was sitting on the sill of the front window look¬ 
ing out, and I saw them coming. 

I jumped down and ran out into the hall to meet 
them. 

When they came in I whined and barked and 
wagged my tail and jumped up on Tommy, and 
he was just as glad to see me as I was to see him. 

We went into a room and Tommy and his father 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 83 

and Mr. Bonelli sat down and talked. I wanted to 
get up in the chair with Tommy, but Mr. Bonelli 
wouldn’t let me. He took me up on his knees, and 
all the while he was talking he kept smoothing me 
and gently pulling my ears. 

At last Tommy and his father stood up, and Mr. 
Bonelli, too, and I scrambled down and ran over 
to Tommy, and Tommy caught his father by the 
arm and cried, “Can’t I take him now? Please!” 

But his father shook his head. “You’ve heard 
what Mr. Bonelli says; he’ll have to train a dog 
to take his place before he can let him go.” 

Then he and Mr. Bonelli shook hands, and 
Tommy said good-bye, and Tommy and his father 
went out and shut the door after them. 

I wanted to go with them, but Mr. Bonelli held 
me back. When he let me go I ran to the door and 
scratched and whined, but I couldn’t get it open, 
and at last I sat down and howled, but all my 
howling did not bring them back. 


84 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 

It was not long after this when Mr. Bonelli 
brought home another dog to the house. He was 
a little brown dog just about my size. At first I 
thought he was a strange dog, but when I went 
up and sniffed at him he smelled like a friend. 
Then he began to wag his tail, and frisk in front 
of me, and all of a sudden I knew who he was. He 
was little Fido from the dog shop. 

I was so glad to see him I whined, and he seemed 
just as glad to see me. 

c< Ah, my Grineo, so you remember your little 
friend from the shop,” said Mr. Bonelli. “I had 
forgotten that you were there together.” 

I was very happy that Fido had come there to 
live and to learn to be a trained dog. I knew he 
would like it. 

Right away Mr. Bonelli began to teach Fido the 
same tricks that I had been doing. He worked and 
worked with him. He taught him everything I 
knew except to grin and to throw the ball. Fido 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 85 

couldn’t learn to do either of those things. He and 
I worked together, and he used to watch everything 
I did, and try to do it the same way. I don’t know 
just how long it took him to learn, but not so very 
long. He was a smart little dog, but not as smart 
as me. I heard Mr. Bonelli say to Mrs. Bonelli, 
“Ah, yes; he is quick, but not quick as is my little 
clown dog. There is but one Grineo, and I was 
foolish when I promised to sell him.” 

And Mrs. Bonelli said, “But it is much money.” 

Then one day, after Fido had learned all the 
tricks he seemed able to learn, an automobile came 
to the door, and in it was William sitting in front, 
and Tommy sat up beside him. 

Tommy came in and I ran to meet him. At first 
he just spoke to me and patted me, but I jumped 
up at him and barked and yelped until he took 
me up in his arms, and then I hardly knew what 
to do, I was so glad. 

Then Mr. Bonelli came in, and Tommy put me 


86 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 


/down and gave Mr. Bonelli an envelope. “Father 
said to give you this/ 5 he said. 

Mr. Bonelli opened the envelope and took out 
a piece of paper and looked at it, and Mrs. Bonelli 
looked at it, too, and they both seemed pleased, 
and Mr. Bonelli said, “That is all right; and please 
thank your father for me. 55 

Then they both said good-bye to me, and Mrs. 
Bonelli took me up and kissed me, and I licked her 
cheek, but I was so happy I barked and squirmed, 
and she had to put me down, for now I somehow 
knew that I was to go with Tommy, and be his 
little dog again, and I wanted to be down where 
I could jump on him if I chose, and follow close 
at his heels. 

I was close at his heels when he went out to the 
automobile again, and when he opened the door 
I jumped in before he did, I was so afraid I might 
be left behind. 

William seemed glad to see me. He said, 


THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 87 

“Hello, Muffins! So you’re coming back to us, 
are you?” And I barked and barked till Tommy 
told me to be quiet. 

Everyone seemed glad to see me at home, too, 
and even the maid smiled and stooped to pat me, 
and Bijou came up and put his nose to mine and 
sniffed at me in a friendly way. 

There had been great changes in the house since 
I was there. Prince Coco was gone, and Fifine was 
gone. Bijou told me what had become of them. 
Prince Coco had eaten so much that he got sick, 
and had been sent away. He always had eaten 
too much. And Fifine had had five little puppies, 
so she had been sent away to the gardener out in 
the country. 

So now Bijou and I were the only dogs in the 
house, and Bijou was very friendly with me all 
the time. He said he had wanted to be friendly 
before, and to play and have some fun with me, 
only he was ashamed to before the other dogs. 


88 THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY, 

/ I couldn’t play with him so very much even now, 
though, because when Tommy was home I had 
to play with him the most. 

I didn’t know that I would ever see Mr. Bonelli 
again, but I did. He came to the house several 
times. What he came for was to show Tommy how 
to put me through my tricks. 

The first time he came he brought a little whip 
just like his own for Tommy, and he brought a 
little barrel striped red, white and blue, and it was 
my own little barrel that I used to act on. There 
were one or two tricks I couldn't do at home be¬ 
cause we hadn’t the things, like the jumping-board 
act and the fire act, but Mr. Bonelli showed 
Tommy how to put me through almost all the 
others. Tommy was pleased, and so was I. I 
grinned and grinned. 

And now I was allowed to go any place in tKe 
house that I wanted to, they were all so proud of 
me. I could even go into the drawing-room and 



Tommy used to make me go through my tricks 


































































THE BLACK-EYED PUPPY 89 

sleep on the chairs if I wished to, and sometimes 
when there were visitors Tommy used to take me 
in and make me go through my tricks, and the 
people laughed and I grinned, and the ladies gave 
me pieces of cake. 

Prince Coco I never saw again. He never came 
back from the place they had sent him to; but 
Fifine came back after a while, and when she saw 
how everybody liked me she liked me, too, and I 
was very happy. But Tommy was the one I loved 
—oh, ever so much better than all the rest of them 
together, for I was his little dog, and I was called 
Muffins again because we liked that name and he 
had given it to me. First Smarty with Mr. 
O’Grady, and then Muffins with Tommy, and then 
Master Grineo with Mr. Bonelli, and now for 
always Tommy’s own little Muffins again. 





























































































































































































































































































































































